The Coin Club? (No Thanks)

There are several digital currency 'deals' going around right now. Some of them are being touted more successfully than others and some might be more legitimate than others.

But some are clearly very suspicious looking if you look at them closely at all. One such deal is Trade Club Coin (TCC).

But don’t believe me. I’m not the only person who thinks so. Just take a look at the

this article recently appearing in in BehindMLM.com which calls TCC an “exchange club ponzi”.

Every cautionary admonition in that article makes total sense to me. Every post-game bad report that I wrote about MLM scams, crypto and otherwise, while I used to write for an MLM online magazine mentioned all the signs of a scam that I see in my research about TCC.

Frankly, I think anybody who would get into a program with no verifiable product to sell other a membership intangible… deserves to get screwed.

Anybody who would get into a program which clearly pays on recruiting only (because it has no real product)… deserves to get screwed.

Anybody who would get into a brand new MLM program that purports to have the kind of ultra-expensive computers and software that mega-banks use to trade currency, yet doesn't even list on their website who their owners are or where their headquarters is… deserves to get screwed.

Anybody who thinks that a company which could do what they claim to be able to do would need to 'go MLM'… deserves to get screwed.

The BehindMLM article also concludes:

"On their own, Trade Club Coin's recruitment commissions make the company a pyramid scheme. Combined with the daily ROI and you're looking at a Ponzi pyramid hybrid."

And….

"Once recruitment dies down and the daily ROI collapses, best of luck getting your bitcoin back from the anonymous Trade Club Coin scammers who stole it."

And by the way, that last comment should remind you of OneCoin. You know about their problems, right?

And don’t forget about TelexFREE and uFunClub. Look them up on Google.

They bear a striking resemblance to TCC with the only difference being that the former sold a crappy VoIP long-distance telephone call product that never really worked.

But both of those deals made many millions of dollars until they got shut down and the owners and/or key players were thrown in jail.

And don’t forget another thing: If you’re buying into a ‘deal’ with an untraceable bitcoin, what kind of recourse do you have if something goes ‘south’?

I’ll tell you… You’ve got NONE.

You’ve got no paperwork to refer to, no regulators to appeal to, no company owners to appeal to or pursue, no nothing except maybe…”I never said that!”

Actually, before I remembered that I had seen the article about TCC in BehindMLM, I already had reservations about it based my perusal of their website.

And you know the thought I immediately had?

Their product and commission description reminded me of the Universal Life or cash-value insurance policies I used to analyze for customers back when I was an agent with A.L.Williams.

Those policies were never what people thought they had. That’s always happened. Those kinds of insurance programs were, until cryptocurrency MLM scams came along, the most dishonest product ever sold the the general public.

But I digress….

When I looked at the TCC website, all I saw was Fees, fees, and more fees. And complexity, complexity, and more complexity.

Didn’t somebody write a book a few years ago called “Hooked”…. something about creating pleasant, beneficial, positive customer experiences?

Looking at the TCC website, I can’t imagine why any rational adult would seriously consider purchasing any product with so little information to back it and and with what information there was being almost totally useless.

As I said, I used to sell mutual funds, and term life insurance, and their fees and commissions weren’t even that complicated.

But when you see those kinds of fees and/or commission plan in an MLM, you know what it means, right?

Yeah…it means you better bend over and get ready for a “Royal Reaming”.

The article also brought up another very critical point which I had failed to notice when I first read the site:

Who owns TTC and where is their company? Are they domiciled in Outer Mongolia? Kazakhstan? Estonia? Arkansas? In a Trailways station in Memphis, TN?

It does make a difference, you know. Yet people are actually recruiting people into a company which claims to be leading edge yet can’t or doesn’t want to provide the most basic but essential consumer information….i.e. who are the owners, how do you contact the company, and where is their headquarters?

I’ve said it before but I think it bears repeating: Cryptocurrency has become the Dr. Frankenstein’s Laboratory of MLM scams. Anybody who looks at all the dumb-ass deals being advertised on Facebook or covered in BehindMLM already knows that.

Really sounds like a reputable company, doesn’t it?

Assuming that this characterization of TCC is true (and I strongly suspect it is) I would hate to think that Markethive’s reputation could be corrupted by being associated with such a disreputable program.

Nor do I think it would be advantageous to endanger the success of Infinity Economics by being associated with TCC. Unless they’re both scams of course.

But I know one thing: currency is simply a commodity…. just like pork bellies, wheat, corn, crude oil, copper, cocoa, etc., and only an idiot would buy a commodity at anything other than the very cheapest price.

The problem with all these MLM companies who are flocking into the cryptocurrency niche like pirana fish on a Thanksgiving turkey is that they drive down the value of their commodity by adding fees (and commissions) to their commodity.

Even if it is a real cryptocoin with a real blockchain. I just do not believe the MLM model is compatible with a cryptocurrency. You cannot have a competitive product (i.e. the coin) and competitive MLM commissions. The two qualities don’t go together.

If you're thinking about getting into one of these MLM cryptocurrency deals just because cryptocurrency and blockchain is something new, and because you heard about it from "a friend" or somebody you respect and because 'the product' looks and sounds like it has some degree of credibility from supposedly credible media and other sources…those are not the right reasons to get into any opportunity.

In my opinion, you need You've still got to do your own due diligence, look past the hype, turn down the emotion, and put your rational 'cap' on.

I well remember the times when I lost money trying to make money. In all cases, it was because I either (a) I thought somebody was smarter than it turned out they actually were or (b) I trusted somebody I shouldn't have trusted in the first place.

Crypto is like honey to a bee for opportunists because they hear about something "new" and they think, "Wow..now this is something people will pay attention to me about. I can make a lot of money with this!"

And they get even more energized if they think their dreams are more important than somebody else's.

Most of the people pitching cryptocoin MLM scams are just opportunists who don't know any more about crypto and blockchain than somebody who watches YouTube videos for a few hours but I think it's naive to think you can ever get a good deal on a commodity that's peppered with fees, commissions, and hidden ‘gotchas’ associated with an MLM model.

You would never buy any other commodity with the mindset that most people use to select an MLM opportunity….yet people make dumb decisions like that all the time.

Of course, an opportunity is sometimes hard for a prospect to resist because the prospect doesn't have anything to compare it to or any standard by which to evaluate it. All they know is that it's new and it's their friend or somebody they respect telling them about it.

But…seriously. Would you buy a mutual fund that way from a company that you knew as little about as you know about TTC?

And what's morbidly funny about these situations is that these scammers are very often the same people who complain about how MLM only sells "Hopes and Dreams". And then they turn around and do that very thing.

I guess what apparently makes it "OK" is that they're at the top.

The new crop of crypto-scammers are like Jim Jones. Remember him… that scammer preacher who killed all those people in Guyana by getting them to drink poison Kool-Aid?

That's where the phrase, "drank the Kool-Aid" comes from. These kind of people are experts at motivation, telling people what they want to hear, posturing, intimidation, bluffing, and sometimes even a bit of bullying…. but no questions are ever allowed during their sermons.

People like this think nothing of raping their friends Suddenly they 'see the Light'. They have a new Mission:

"It's going to change the world!!" "We give 5% of every dollar of profit to the "Save The Lab Rats Fund", "We scrape one piece of bubble-gum off the sidewalk of Times Square for every $10 in profit we make", "We'll plant a rose bush on Mt. Everest"…etc., etc., yada, yada….

And then when the deal craters….or doesn't turn out exactly the way they told everybody it would… suddenly they're silent, it's not their fault, or…"we never said that!"

I can understand somebody making an honest mistake. We all make mistakes. We're all sinners. But what I find repulsive and disappointing is when these same people won't admit they made a mistake or they even deny they made a mistake. (Ex: Dead Parrot)

Now…back to TCC….

For one thing, look at this article from BehindMLM.com which calls it a "cryptocurrency exchange ponzi".For me….I say, 'no thanks'. Sure, I'd like to make some big money. But I don’t think TCC is a legitimate program. It doesn’t have any of the characteristics of one.

I just browsed the TCC website and I defy anybody to tell me that they really understand how that compensation plan works. But one thing is pretty obvious. It's complicated while really not saying very much of any substance.

As I see it, a person will be able to make money in TCC only if one or both of two things happen:

(a) the cryptocoin market continues to go up… and go up a LOT and/ or (b) they recruit a lot of people.

To elaborate further, your cryptocoin will have to go up a lot in order to compensate for all the commissions and fees built into the product.

In MLM that's sometimes called 'slippage'. Would you buy anything else that's loaded down with complexities like that?

Also, are you a good recruiter? Were you ever a good recruiter? Do you really want to get back into that game?

If you were never really good at it, isn't it rather naive to think you are suddenly going to be good at it now just because "…this one is different!"

People haven't changed. You haven't changed. Cryptocurrencies, in my humble opinion, is not going to be any easier a 'deal' than anything else ever was for you.

As an MLM opportunity…it's just a fad. The same people will make money in it that make money in all the other deals. And the same people will lose.

Also…remember what I said about 'money' up above.

Cryptocurrency is a commodity. That's it. And only an idiot pays more for a commodity than they have too buy buying with all the extra charge TCC throws into the mix.

Yet I marvel at how MLM detractors can be so holier-than-thou to criticize traditional MLM companies for having over-priced products and yet be willing to get their friends into what essentially (in it's MLM iteration) is just the unregulated MLM version of Universal Life insurance (or at least the investment side of the product).

And what trying to objectively evaluate the strength of TCC with questions such as, "OK…who's in back of this deal? What's their MLM background and track record? Do they have a real history of helping average people make money in their last deal?”

Or did they get run out of the last program they were in… or did they leave on short notice because they knew they were going to get fired anyway?

If you were going to hire somebody to work for you in a traditional company, wouldn't you check their past employer and references?

I think that would be a smart thing to do the next time (or maybe this time) somebody pitches you about a 'new deal'.

The bottom line on Trade Coin Club is that it boils down to being careful and using some common sense. Think with your head rather than your wallet.

Read the fine print. Ask the tough questions. Take a careful look and consider if you can handle the worst case scenario. Hoping that 'this one is different' won't make it different.

If it sounds too good to be true it probably is. Don't get into dark waters (something you don't know anything about). Don't trust anybody who you know has lead other people down the 'garden path' in previous deals. If they lied once, they’ll probably lie again.

Don't be afraid to work a legitimate MLM if you find one you like. Find a good product that delivers real value to the end-user. And stick with it.

As for TCC, I think it’s a scam. Yes, some people who will make some money…. but most won't and there will be a lot of friendships ruined because of it.